In this chapter …

… we discuss general command-line options for Appligent server applications.

Common command-line options are used in all Appligent server applications. These options deal with product information, progress messages, and file maintenance. For information on command options that are specific to AppendPDF and AppendPDF Pro see AppendPDF Options or AppendPDF Pro Options.

This option is typically not necessary and is available for use in cases where the Appligent License File can not be located by the application because of runtime environment restrictions.

-l <logfile> — Create a log file (optional)

Specify a text file for any errors and progress messages. This option is helpful for debugging. The -l <logfile> option must be followed by a file name. If there are no errors, no file is written. If a log file is not specified, errors are written to the default log file, appendpdf.log. The default log file name is the same for both AppendPDF and AppendPDF Pro. Make sure that your log file is write enabled.

-p — Show progress (optional)

Write progress messages to the screen STDOUT, the standard output of your system, and to the default log file, appendpdf.log. This option is helpful for debugging and for understanding how AppendPDF or AppendPDF Pro works. If the -p option is present on the command line, all errors and progress messages are written to the default log file, appendpdf.log.

A note on using -p and -l <logfile> together

As outlined in the above sections, the -p option gives you progress messages and errors on your screen and the -l <logfile> option writes error messages to a file you specify. The table below provides more detail on using these options alone or together.

Using -p and -l <logfile>

-l

-p

ERRORS
FOUND

RESULT

✔

Nothing will be written to the screen or to the log file you specify.

✔

Progress message will be written to the screen and appendpdf.log.

✔

✔

Progress messages will be written to the screen and to the log file you specify.

✔

An appendpdf.log file will be created with the errors in your working directory.

✔

✔

Errors will be written to the log file you specify.

✔

✔

Errors will be written to appendpdf.log and your screen.

✔

✔

✔

Both progress and error messages will be written to the screen and to the log file you specify.

Therefore, -l <logfile> used on its own will only go into action if there are errors. With -p and -l <logfile> combined, you will get a text file with full details on AppendPDF or AppendPDF Pro operations whether there are errors or not.

-n — Do not write anything to screen (optional)

Do not write anything to the screen (or STDOUT). If you are running batch mode, this prevents progress messages from building up.

-v — Display version information (optional)

Display the version of AppendPDF or AppendPDF Pro you are running. This is important when corresponding with support@Appligent.com. In order to better understand your problem, we must know what version of the software you have. AppendPDF or AppendPDF Pro will not do anything else if you use this option.

-h or -help — Show usage (optional)

Display all available command-line options. AppendPDF or AppendPDF Pro will not do anything else if you use either of these options.

-i — Perform incremental save (optional)

An incremental save appends changed information to the end of the file. This is faster than a full save, but may result in a larger file. A full save is similar to using the “Save As…” command in Adobe Acrobat. It is a save that attempts to clean up a PDF file, often reducing its size.

-w — Linearize the file upon save (optional)

Save the output file as a linearized document (also known as optimization). Linearization reorganizes the file to make it more efficient for web delivery. Individual pages can be rendered before the entire document has downloaded, so the user can start reading the document sooner.

-optimize — Optimize the file (optional)

This flag will do the following: 1) encode any non-encoded streams using Flate compression, 2) remove ASCII85 filters from all streams, 3) replace LZW encoded streams with Flate encoding, 4) merge identical XObjects and images, 5) optimize common sequences in page content, and 6) merge identical font descriptors and encodings. This option will usually result in a smaller file size.

-nocomp — Do not compress using Object Streams (optional)

This flag will not compress Object Streams, resulting in a document that is compatible with all versions of Acrobat.

-comp — Compress using Object Streams (optional)

This flag will compress Object Streams, resulting in a document that is compatible with Acrobat 6.0 and later.

-iso32000 — Set file for ISO 32000-1 compliance (optional)

This flag sets the file for compliance with ISO 32000-1:2008 (PDF 1.7).